Liverpool/Blackpool

The Concise OED says "Liverpudlian belonging to (a native of) Liverpool, of which the final syll. was joc. altered to puddle." Other sources agree. The Online Etymology Dictionary says it's attested it to 1833 (apparently getting that from the full OED).

I can't find who started it or how it was popularized or why the folks in Blackpool weren't equally jocular.

Edited to add--there are all sorts of notions about the etymology of "Liverpool" itself.
>Debate has ranged from meanings coming from the large pool, or natural harbour, which sat beside the town, to the influence of a variety of languages and references to the local plant or bird life, and even to the influence of a local family.

Edited by: nutraxfornerves

Good question. No idea. But I note a puddle is a pool; and vice versa+; and I note too that +Liver+ has two syllables whereas +Black is one. Maybe the synonym is chosen for the ease with which it trips off the tongue?

You get Hartlepudlians though

Indeed! What, I wonder, do folks frae Poole in Dorset say?

Poodles?

and people from Blackpool are called Blackpoolians

Maybe you're right, but I've never heard it before. Wikipedia gives three possibilities, one of which (admitted rare) is Blackpudlian, and none of which is Blackpoolian.

Indeed! What, I wonder, do folks frae Poole in Dorset say?

Most places don't have a special name for people from there.